From Behind the Computer Screen
by Mendeia
Summary: Oneshot, 50-word prompt about Donatello. Donatello finally mastered the mad scientist cackle and it totally freaks out his brothers when they hear it explode from the lab, but they freak out a lot more when the lab explodes and Don still laughs.


I wrote this a long time ago – more than a year, in fact – when I was working on "Resonance" and got stuck. I didn't post it then, and I have no idea why. I guess I just didn't think of it. But after some of my recent computer issues, I've decided to post things when they're complete and not worry about it. I'd be sad if something had happened and I'd lost this before coming to the decision to share it.

I don't own the TMNT, Kermit, Jem, Pinky & the Brain, or anybody else who pops into this goofy thing – just borrowing them for a bit of fun.

I'm not sure where you place this one in time. Some of it is specific to the 2003 series, but some of it is just the boys at their best, so go with it as you will. No real spoilers, I don't think. Just a WHOLE lot of Donatello.

Enjoy!

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><p>1. Mistakes<p>

Apparently, chemistry before coffee is a bad idea if the pink stain from the small explosion, a stain that refuses to wash off of his carapace no matter what he tries, is any indication; Don rolls his eyes at his brothers' jokes and sighs at one more lesson learned.

2. Heartfelt

The turtles aren't, in general, good with words, but when the family wakes up to find some new miracle that will better protect them or make them comfortable, some gadget that probably took weeks of effort, they know Donnie has been thinking of them.

3. Fading Away

Some people train themselves to fall asleep when they lie down, some when a sound-machine clicks on, but Donatello has trained himself to sleep only when the glow of his primary monitor has finally winked out.

4. Spirit

Don looks at the fire in Raph's eyes when the angriest turtle demolishes a Foot Ninja who got in a good blow, and is really, really glad he's on their side.

5. Choose

Nobody knows exactly why the Ancient One chose the colors he did for the four turtles, and given the choice back then purple wouldn't have been Don's pick, but he's worked it into himself so thoroughly now he can't imagine choosing anything else.

6. Immortal

Donatello would never forget the afternoon he found the encyclopedia that told him how very long he and his brothers would live, and the terrible moment afterwards when he realized that Master Splinter would not share the vast majority of those years with them.

7. Open Your Eyes

When the last thing you see before something knocks you out is the Shredder, there is no sweeter sight than your family leaning over you when you finally wake.

8. Electrify

"Seriously, don't plug that in until I say so, unless you like turtle soup with a purple garnish."

9. Starlight

The night sky never interested the turtles, since what you could see even from the rooftops of the city wasn't much, but on the first night of the first trip out to Casey's farm, Donatello understood for the first time what astronomers were raving about, and he stayed up all night trying to see it all.

10. Sacrifice

After the fourth night in a row when the genius turtle hasn't had any sleep and hasn't left his lab, his family gives up urging rest and simply brings him whatever food or drink or comfort he'll acknowledge; at some point, they have to accept that what Don is doing is no longer for himself but for them, and the least they can do is honor his dedication.

11. Honor

A part of Donatello has always felt that their battles against the Purple Dragons and even the regular Foot aren't fair – even caught by surprise, the turtles always have better armor already donned and ready for the fight.

12. Bite

"Mike, if you don't stop doing that, I'm seriously going to extract ALL of them and not just the one!"

13. Commit

There's a tension right as he connects the final coupler before switching the thing on, a moment when either months of his effort will be rewarded or he'll blow up his lab, and every time he puts his faith in himself and hits the on-switch, he feels a keen thrill; the others don't really recognize that moment of triumph since they believe Donnie's brain hasn't let them down yet and never will.

14. Fake

Nobody will ever know, and Don conveniently reformatted his mainframe right afterwards to eliminate any potential evidence, but the night he put on a blonde wig to use his webcam with an internet friend was the funniest, and strangest, of his life.

15. Tender

It's taken ten years, but finally Donnie has mastered his father's gentleness such that even a broken foot feels painless in his hands – for this, his brothers are tremendously grateful and very impressed.

16. Trouble

Don hates pushups, and part of that is because of the day long ago when he found out the hard way that taking apart the stove when one's father wants to make tea is a bad idea.

17. Final

Donatello will never know why it's always the last screw of the last component that goes missing or gets stolen by Klunk when it's inevitably 4am and he hasn't slept in 72 hours, but it is, and someday he's gonna just close up the machine and to hell with one screw.

18. Waiting

It's always a bad sign when, in passing the lab, Don can be seen staring intently at a slowly-moving bar on the screen and muttering, "I am slowly going crazy; one, two, three, four, five, six, switch!"

19. Awareness

Leo isn't any different biologically from his brothers, but his uncanny ability to appear at Don's side at just the right moment, when nobody knew he'd been gone or where, when Don was sure this time was going to be the end, is just spooky.

20. Turn Away

Though gentle at heart, and more of a pacifist than his whole family, Donatello understands that the worst thing he can do to a dying enemy is to fail to meet their eyes at the last moment, and so he guides them into death with his steady gaze, even as his heart would prefer to run.

21. Searching

"Why is it that when I want to find out about reaction kinetics and better methods of measuring them on the internet all I get is porn?"

22. Hands of Fate

He's not a doctor, he's never been to med school, but when one of his brothers is on the table, Donatello puts all his heart and brain into his hands, because they are sometimes all that keeps four turtles from becoming three.

23. Irresistible

Raph chases relentlessly after vengeance, Mikey after fun, and Leo after serenity, and all three think Don is crazy for being totally satisfied with whatever he finds in a junkyard.

24. Easy

As Donnie passes one of the anti-aliens posters still up in the subway, he thinks maybe Kermit was onto something with that whole "Bein' Green" thing.

25. Breathing

Where there's snoring, there's life – this is the mantra Don has to keep in mind whenever Raph is in the infirmary and he's trying to work over the noise.

26. Stumble

If one happens to be genius, one's mind suddenly on fire with ideas and plans and blueprints and everything else needed to turn scrap metal into an engineering miracle, and if one is in the process of rushing to put these ideas into action RIGHT NOW, one should be forgiven for occasionally tripping over small, unexpected things in one's path, such as kitchen tables, chairs, and appliances.

27. Fighting

Sometimes it looks to outsiders like Donatello is clumsier than his brothers, or at least less aware of his surroundings – what none of them realize is that he isn't any slower or less sharp of a ninja; but Don's mind moves ten times faster than his body ever could, so sometimes by the time the outside world has caught up to him, he's already acting on his next move and it catches him in something of a tangle.

28. Closing In

Every night before he goes to bed, Donnie activates the external security networks he's spent years perfecting – though nothing changes perceptibly, he can almost feel the sudden hum of energy as hundreds of hours, miles of cable, and an impressive number of gadgets come to life, forming invisible walls and gates and bars into a defense system more impenetrable than any castle stronghold.

29. Involved

Even though nobody can help him with 90% of his work, everybody tries their best to give what they can, to pick up whatever slack is left, because it's the best way they have to let Don know they notice what he's doing and haven't forgotten him even after a week in the lab.

30. Destiny

Everybody thought he was joking, but Don was quite serious when he answered the "what do you think our destiny is?" question with a pinpoint-accurate measure of his molecular density – to the purple-clad turtle, there was no more efficient way of demonstrating exactly what he was made of, where his interests fell, and therefore what would dominate the sphere of his life forever.

31. Sweet

Donatello has never been much of a pet person, but he has to admit, there's nothing quite like working late with Klunk the orange fluffball curled up on his lap purring in his sleep, warming the turtle and reminding him that he's not totally alone in the dead of night.

32. Calling

"No, Master, not that button…no, push the one with the green mark on it…no, the other green mark…why doesn't Mikey ever just call me instead?

33. Nightmare

For a month straight after they'd been sent to separate dimensions, Don woke shaking from even short naps, and could find no peace until he'd seen one of his brothers; Leo, Raph, and Mikey, in unspoken agreement, made sure that one of them was always, always nearby when Don went to bed so they would be able to reassure him as quickly as possible when he woke.

34. Flat

There were few things worse than a turtle shell to try to use as a makeshift table – between the many scars and rough texture and rounded shape and the gaps between their scutes, it's really not any kind of writeable surface– but if Don gets an idea and has to write it down RIGHT THAT MINUTE, one of his brothers will just have to try to pretend.

35. Superstar

Unlike the youngest turtle, Donnie never cared to roll with the Justice Force; he believed in everything they stood for, but he knew in his heart that he was happier serving his family by providing the basics than serving the world with more exotic technology.

36. Spider Web

The day Leonardo discovered actual cobwebs attached to his genius brother's pillow, he swore that Don was either going to sleep more by choice or they'd have to start drugging his coffee.

37. Haunted

Halloween was often the turtles' favorite time of year, since they could walk around a lot more freely, but after the year April dressed up as a very convincing Jem, they sort of lost their taste for it for a while.

38. Rich

Of them all, only one turtle can actually hold a job in the real world that is anything near lucrative, and since he's Don, he has his own crazy banking set-up, more elaborate than any Wall Street fraudster's, where he carefully allots money to lend to his brothers who are, unavoidably, always broke.

39. Everybody

Leo is the leader, and Raph is the loudest, and Mikey is the funniest, and Splinter is the wisest, but somehow, when the purple-banded one speaks up, everybody gets much quieter and listens.

40. Meant No Harm

The absolutely stricken look on ten-year-old Raph's face as he hands Donnie's newest, and now most busted, creation to his brother tells the young inventor everything he needs to hear, so he cheerfully sets about making the needed repair, showing his short-tempered sibling where his rage went wrong.

41. Apple

When Donatello first learned how to manipulate photos, he took one of the tourist-y pictures of New York City as an apple and added a worm with Mikey's head – even years later, that stupid grin as he bites away at the core of the city makes him laugh.

42. Darling

"Casey, have you ever considered that maybe calling her 'babe,' which could be viewed as a derogatory and sexist term referring to physical attributes that have nothing to do with her high intelligence and formidable fighting skills, isn't quite the way to April's heart, given that she smacks you every time you do it?"

43. Name

When Raphael found out that Don's IM handle was "The Brain," he laughed for a week; until, that is, that Don hacked his laptop and irrevocably changed Raph's to "Pinky."

44. By My Side

Rare are the times Don actually fights shell-to-shell with Leo, since the brothers just don't pair off that way very often, but when he feels the oldest turtle settle into his rhythms and attack beside him, there's such purity in their harmony it's like electricity.

45. Mountains

As far as he's concerned, the purple-clad turtle has enough challenges in his lab to last a lifetime – why on earth he should be tempted to go and come up with all new challenges and hills to climb and setbacks to encounter, he's never completely sure, but when his brothers go and do just that, well then, that's reason enough for him to follow.

46. Stay

"I came back," he says weakly to the three gathered near, none of them quite sure how they managed to save his life given that not one of them has the medical skills he does and none of them knew what they were doing, really, "because you asked me to."

47. Blood

Only once did anyone, and it was Casey at that, ask if the turtles were related "for real;" Don's run the tests, but to be honest, he doesn't give a damn about the results because there's nothing in their DNA that could be any more real than what they already share.

48. Laugh

Donatello finally mastered the mad scientist cackle after months of trying, and it totally freaks out his brothers when they hear it explode from the lab, but they freak out a lot more when the lab explodes and Don still laughs.

49. Key

The one great thing about being a genius, the purple-clad turtle is proud to admit, is that he can come up with, and remember, a passcode so long and complicated that NOBODY has ever been able to leach their bandwidth; the fact that probably nobody has ever roamed the sewers looking for unsecured networks is purely coincidental.

50. End

It doesn't matter how many lairs they've lost to their enemies, it doesn't matter how many times he has to start over with their gear, their vehicles, even his lab, and it doesn't matter if they wind up in a box in the alley off of Laird in the end; all that matters, all that's ever mattered, is that when Don finally falls asleep, his brothers and his father are near.


End file.
